There’s been a collective plea from the online masses recently that really stops and makes you think – Why aren’t dudes making music in their garages anymore?
Some, like Florida Congressman Maxwell Alejandro Frost, have pointed out that the current “Housing crisis also means there are less garages for bands to make sick music in.” And while the housing crisis has certainly elevated this issue, I’d like to propose a counter explanation: Garage rock was never actually about the garages.
When listening to a band like Liquid Mike, you start to get it more and more with every song. Hailing from the parts of Michigan you can’t point out on the mitten, lead singer Mike Maple originally started the project in 2020 while working as a mail carrier for USPS, writing lyrics and licks during the slower hours. Eventually, members Monica Nelson (backing vocals, synths, cornet), Zack Alworden (bass), Cody Maracek (drums), and Dave Daignault (guitar, vocals) would join, and the band has genuinely not stopped going since.
Their latest record, Hell Is An Airport, is the SIXTH (!!!) album that the band has put out in the five years since founding. It’s the kind of pace that reminds you of ‘90s indie rock outfits like Guided by Voices (who might’ve been allergic to not releasing projects) and the sound that follows. Even with the consistent new projects, their sound hasn’t pivoted too strongly since 2020’s Stuntman; It’s a little bit garage rock, a little bit power pop, and a whole lot of fun either way the cards fall.
Immediately, the band sets the mood right with “Instantly Wasted.” Though they do have a good handful of songs about actually getting wasted, this one sees gratification going to waste in a short, punchy opener. Funnily enough, though, you end up getting instant gratification with the transition into the next track, “Lit From the Wrong End.” It’s one of the huge appeals to these songs being so short – Coming in at only 27 minutes with 14 songs, the album is ripe for transitions and establishing a strong, strong cohesion that only works in Liquid Mike’s favor. In fact, the first song that breaks from this cohesion is one of the five singles, “AT&T,” five tracks and seven and a half minutes in.
Even outside of the singles, which do really stand out as the highlights of the record, the album is packed with bangers. “Grand Am” is a fun mental image about Houdini “blowing perfect circles / In a Grand Am / Until his face turns purple,” but the real highlight is the abrupt ending to the track that makes you wonder if the band wrote it to have something quick to end their shows on. Oasis’s Liam Gallagher gets name-dropped in the title, but not in a lyric in the longest song of the album (at only 2:49), with a sick instrumental moment and killer licks laid throughout. “‘99” stands out, too, as one of the more rock-heavy instillations, hitting maximum overdrive with only a few seconds to breathe in between verses.
The album might be titled Hell Is An Airport, but through and through, it’s clear that Liquid Mike and its members had a vision for where this record should be enjoyed. This one’s meant for all the dive bars with the locals that know your name and the cheapest beer this side of town, the nostalgia-fueled sessions with the “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” series, and the late nights sitting around in your buddy’s garage with good tunes blaring from the cheap speaker that’s been around forever. Airports being terrible is a universal experience, as Liquid Mike proclaims, but the collective euphoria from a rock album like this is too – Garage not required.